


Now That You're Home

by Living_Free



Series: Slip and Slide [47]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Batdad, Batfamily, Crack, Damian loves his Grayson, Dick Grayson is: Damian's mother, F/F, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Jason Todd Feels, Jason Todd Has Issues, M/M, Protective Bruce Wayne, Protective Dick Grayson, Resurrected Jason Todd, The secret life of Raven and Kori, batbros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 00:16:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20648069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Living_Free/pseuds/Living_Free
Summary: Jason is cursed with the burden of realization.Bruce briefly overcomes his emotional constipation.Damian is officially Dick's baby,and Dick can heal the world with his love, just maybe.





	Now That You're Home

Jason was meandering in the cave after his daily workout, and decided that as he was here, he may as well do some spring snooping- er, that is to say, cleaning - for Bruce.

He was such a good son.

Now, where did Bruce store his most delicate items? Jason looked around the cave, pondering. Bruce was not a materialistic man. He was a man of few vices - namely, Selina - and was simplistic almost to a fault. Nothing worth blackmailing him over.

But Bruce could also be a doofus, Jason thought delightedly, and perhaps the camera's security feeds had picked up something.

Jason bounced to the batcomputer and delightedly pulled up the security camera footage. "Show...history," Jason muttered, and clicked on the tab, to reveal Bruce's viewing history. Dates crawled up the screen, and Jason snorted. Wow, but Bruce was paranoid, he thought, as the dates went back as far as a decade prior. He was watching all of this?

Jason clicked on a recent video that had been accessed the previous week. The video sparked to life on the big screen, revealing a video of Damian lugging a large sack of grapes into the cave. He stopped in the centre of the cave and gave a tuneful whistle, and opened up the sack.

The next second, he was assaulted by several bats and his little demon fruit dragon. Damian lay on the ground, spread eagled, as the happy animals went ham on their food, occasionally pausing to snuffle Damian appreciatively. Underneath the pile of animals, Jason could make out Damian's signature little frog smile. The kid was in his own little heaven on earth, he thought. Good for him.

Jason closed the video of the rarely seen Wholesome Damian, wondering if this what what Dik saw every time he looked at Damian. It would certainly explain his unwavering love for the little demon brat.

Jason clicked on the next video, and was treated to the sight of a tiny, lecherous Timmy, who was illicitly hanging out with Superboy in the cave. Jason watched the giggling couple as Tim led Superboy over to the beanbag in the corner, and then invited his fiance to ravish him.

Jason shuddered and turned the video off, glad to see that Bruce had already made a note to punish Tim. Honestly, how dare he assault Jason's little peepers with images of Tim's pale thighs in his extremely tiny skirt? Tim deserved the grounding he was going to get.

Jason happily scrolled down the list of videos, occasionally clicking on random ones. There was one of Dick turning himself into a pretzel for Terry's viewing pleasure, aw baby Terry was happy, that was nice. There were several of Tim getting himself into trouble, wow, that boy didn't know when to quit. Oh, there was one of Damian and Colin in their overlong wizard robes, performing a ritual, Bruce was pissed off in the corner. Cass and Steph trying and failing to corner Tim and beautify his hair, the list went on and on.

Eventually, Jason reached a specifically named video, which stood out due to not being under a simple date tag. Instead, it was named FILE: NIGHTWING.

Jason's blood ran cold. Why did Bruce have a specific file out for Dick? What was the old man hiding from their family? Jason clicked on the file, and before hitting the play button, went to the details tab and felt his heart drop as the text rolled up on the screen.

Details: NIGHTWING

Type: Security camera recording

Date: 02-02-2011

Description: Nightwing's emotional balance must be addressed, subject is vulnerable and may be a danger to self and others. Remove from field until such time that subject is deemed stable.

Addendum 1: Subject NIGHTWING will be evaluated by AGENT A, not BATMAN.

Addendum 2: AGENT A has determined that subject NIGHTWING's mental state is acceptable for battle.

Addendum 3: BATMAN vehemently disagrees with AGENT A's analysis, engage PROTOCOL: OVERRIDE to ground NIGHTWING until further notice.

Addendum 4: AGENT A has engaged PROTOCOL: MASS OVERRIDE and has placed subject NIGHTWING as fit for active duty.

Addendum 5: BATMAN has engaged PROTOCOL: APOCALYPTIC OVERRIDE and has grounded NIGHTWING until further notice.

Addendum 6: AGENT A wishes to note that BATMAN is letting his untreated grief and understandable paranoia run rampant, and encourages him to sit down for tea and discuss his feelings in a calm and controlled manner.

Addendum 6: AGENT A has engaged PROTOCOL: TEA for subjects BATMAN and NIGHTWING

Addendum 7: Situation resolved, AGENT A decrees NIGHTWING fit for active duty, on condition that NIGHTWING and BATMAN schedule PROTOCOL: TEA follow-up as a bi-weekly activity, to be supervised by AGENT A and ROBIN 3.

Upon seeing the words ROBIN 3, realization hit Jason. With the date on the video, and Tim's presence, this would have been immediately after Jason's death. With trembling fingers, Jason hit the play button.

The scene opened to the empty Batcave, with the notably new memorial case for Jason's old Robin suit on display. One of the first things that Jason had done upon coming back to Gotham was break in and vandalize the memorial display to read, "BITCH I LIVED". Dick had giggled but told him off for vandalism, and Bruce had gone a ripe purple colour.

Jason gulped as Nightwing came shooting out of the zeta tubes. Jason recalled that when he had died, Dick had been on a space mission, and it was common practice to notdisrupt a mission.

Oh god.

Dick didn't know.

"Brooose!" Dick squealed happily. "Little Wiiiing! Alfie! I'm hoooome!"

Eek. Stupid Dick and his stupid happy energy.

Dick continued to bounce around and talk to nobody in particular. "You won't believe what happened! We were on Xyrgos 9, right? And we got hit with sex pollen! Well of course Wally and I were alright, we had each other, I love him so much, but the others were so sad! The only one who was okay was Raven, because she meditated the horniness away, but poor little Roy and Joey had to find some watermelons and hollow them out to do their naughtiness.

But we saved the hostages and freed the people's government from the military coup, and now everyone is happy, and I...I..."

Dick paused, having noticed the memorial plaque. His eyes grew wide as he read it, tracking the text detailing Jason's birth and death dates over and over.

Then he began to scream.

Jason had never heard a worse sound in his life. He felt his hair stand on end as Dick continued to cry out and claw at his face. Jason shut his eyes so that he didn't have to see the fingernail marks on his brother's face.

"Dick! Dick!"

On the screen, Bruce burst into the frame, dressed as the Bat. He caught Dick around the waist as he finally fell over, screaming and crying. Bruce hollered Dick's name repeatedly. "DICK! STOP! PLEASE!"

This carried on for ten minutes, and Jason watched until both Bruce and Dick were on the cold, stone floor, holding each other and crying softly.

"Bruce..." Dick whispered hoarsely. "Jason- how-?"

"Dick, don't do this, not now," Bruce whispered.

"Bruce, I wasn't there..."

"Dick, no," Bruce said firmly. "No. It's...it's over. It's over."

Dick sobbed, and Bruce lay down next to him, holding his last remaining child. The recording cut off five minutes into this, of Bruce tiredly holdnig Dick to his chest and Dick's body shaking with sobs.

The moment the screen went black, Jason was on his knees, retching and dry heaving. Oh god, what had he just watched? As Jason finished heaving, he felt a gentle hand on his back. He looked up to see Dick's concerned face.

"Okay now, Jay?"

Jason nodded and allowed Dick to dab his wet face - when had he started crying? - with a towel. When he was done, Dick rolled himself and Jason onto the nearby beanbag and settled them onto it so that his head was resting over Jason's heart, and their hands were clasped together.

"Bruce...he took you off dut for that," Jason said hoarsely.

Dick hummed. "We were all in a bad way," he admitted, "until Timmy came and bullied Bruce into seeing sense. Bruce took it hard, we slept in the same bed for months after you..."

"Alfred really instiituted the TEA protocol, huh?"

"Oh yeah," Dick laughed. "Counselling over tea and biscuits. Talking it out helps, Little Wing. It's why I encourage the kids to come to one of us when they're having troubles."

Jason hummed, relizing that he was talking about Tim and Damian. "Tim's going to be upset that you think of him as a kid."

"There's no helping that," Dick snorted.

They lay together for a while longer before Jason said, "I'm sorry, Dick."

"Don't be."

"I came back in the worst way possible," Jason said, ignoring his marshmallow of a brother. "I didn't even think that you and Bruce would've been mourning me. I was so angry...god, I was in the Lazarus Pit when you were crying," Jason realized. "I was hating on you when you were crying over me."

"You were being brainwashed," Dick said firmly. "It's one of the reasons that Bruce and I feel so strongly about Talia. It's why I filed for Damian's adoption when Bruce supposedly died. I'd rather have a surprise child than allow him to go back to that woman."

"Wait, what was that about Damian's adoption?"

"Nothing," Dick said shrilly.

Jason raised his head from the pillow to look incredulously at a clearly lying Dick. "Dick."

"Y-yeah?"

"Did you adopt Damian."

"Little Wing, it's not like that..."

"Did. You. Adopt. Damian."

Dick fidgetted before screaming, "Yes, alright! I did! The laws in Gotham suck and are full of loopholes, and I was able to prove Talia as a neglectful parent when Bruce was gone! They gave me permission to adopt Dami as his mother!"

Jason stared. "You're...legally Damian's mother."

"Yes?" Dick squeaked.

"Does Damian know?"

"Oh, of course," Dick said, nodding vigourously. "I okayed it with him first! Dami has enough space in his heart for two mommies, and I won't ever stop him from loving Talia, even though I feel less than kindly about her! Are...are you mad, Little Wing?" Dick asked quietly.

Jason stared, and then burst out laughing. "Mad? Are you kidding me? This is the best thing I've heard in ages!"

Dick smiled tremulously and patted Jason's mighty pecs. "Thanks, Little Wing."

"Serious talk though, does Bruce know?"

"Yeah," Dick sighed, as Jason bubbled up with laughter again. "He's pretty pissed, but he's alright with it, he knows why I did it. We tend to ignore it mostly, Bruce is Damian's dad, after all. I'm only the emergency mom."

"Hee hee hee," Jason wheezed through his giggles. "And no one else knows?"

"No," Dick said. "I filed the paperwork in secret. I have friends in the court system, they made it so that the records won't come up if someoen that's not one of us looks for it."

"What friend?"

"Well...we all have civilian personas, right?" Dick said. "So...Raven's civilian persona is the clerk down at the family court."

Jason's jaw dropped. "Raven works at the courthouse?"

"Yeah," Dick sighed.

"She's the jaded goth girl in the oblong black sweater at the front desk?"

"Yeah," Dick admitted, "that's her. It's a pretty good disguise, Kory does her makeup every morning, it's their bonding activity, and Kory gets to practice for her makeup guru youtube channel."

Jason giggled happily. Oh, the secrets that were spilling out today.

"Hey, Dick?"

"Yes, Jay?"

"You're awesome."

Dick perked up. "You're awesome too, Little Wing!"

Jason snorted, and patted Dick on the back until he fell asleep. Somewhere along the way, Jason decided that he was overdue for a nap as well. When he woke up an hour later, it was to the sight of Tim peering down at him.

How anyone thought that Tim was attractive frankly boggled Jason. His little brother looked like a mix between a cursed marsupial and a screech owl. Tim was using his owlish eyes right now to peer at Jason.

"Why are you and Dick on Timmy's Beanbag of Love?"

Jason retched, recalling that this was the beanbag that Kon had used to feel Tim up, while the twink in question squealed ecstatically. "Dick get up, this is Tim's sex beanbag!"

Dick yelled and threw himself off, with Jason springing up as well, glaring at Tim. "The hell, Tim, why're you always so up for it?"

"Because Timmy is unashamed of his sexuality and his needs," Tim said proudly. "Are you alright?" He asked, peering observantly at the tear stains down Jason's cheeks.

Jason batted at Tim's head. "Yeah, yeah, go away."

"Dodged!" Tim cried, and somersaulted away.

"Why're you down here anyway?" Jason grunted.

"I came to get you and Dick," Tim said. "Damian's being inadvertently cute again, he's sat between Cass and Steph and watching Friends. He's talking about how Ross is a rubbish person."

"Where's the lie?" Jason snorted. "Dick, get the camera."  
"On it!" Dick said. "Let's go upstairs!"

As the brothers exited the cave, the security cameras continued to roll, capturing the tender and happy moments shared by the siblings.

***

Further upstairs, in the study, Bruce watched his sons hold each other and share comfort as his own heart ached for his belligerent second son.

But seeing the boys comforting each other and working through their pain gave Bruce a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach, that blossomed throughout his body. His boys were all grown up, he realized, and were capable of so much.

"I wish you would not creep so, Master Bruce," Alfred said from behind him.

"Look at the boys, Alfred," Bruce said, ignoring Alfred's pointed comment about his tendency to creep, "they're so capable."

"And that, sir, is down to your parenting."

"Eh?"

Alfred stared at Bruce, wondering how dense his son-ward could be. "You raised those boys, Master Bruce," he said. "They are what you made them. And you made them capable of that deep love."  
"Oh," Bruce said, blushing unattractively. "I, er, suppose so."

"In that same vein then," Alfred mused, "I would be the Master Parent, having raised you. Ah, the glow of accomplishment surrounds me with its warmth!"

Bruce rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure. Come on, Alfred, I'll make us some tea."

Alfred's eyebrows danced. "You, Master Bruce?"

"Sure," Bruce said, getting up, "after all, I learned from the best."


End file.
